Chapter 41: Arc 4: The Burning Port’s Reaper (8)

As Ciel stared face-first into the barrel of defeat, Hikari noticed an intruder.

One of the Golden Hand agents walked into the room and knelt down.

“Gold Leader,” the agent addressed Hikari, using the title for the head of the Golden Hand. “We have a problem. There is a raid in the slum. One of the slave-market financier are under attack.”

Hikari shrank at the prospect of more problems, “And we should care because?”

“Because the financier is directly connected to several businesses in the port, and his death will cause a violent transition of power,” the agent said.

“Great,” Hikari said, trying to maintain absolute control over her throbbing vein. “Help him keep things under control. It is only some disgruntled mobs from the slum, right? Just told him to follow the demand for now then give him a hefty fine.”

Ciel would call that a slap in the wrist, but given how Eleanor viewed the value of life, he wasn’t exactly surprised at the outrageously light sentence.

“We can’t help him,” the agent said. “We barely cordon the area. The financier’s assets and warehouses are under siege at the moment. Out of a twenty storehouses under our watch, ten have already fallen.” The agent trembled. “Given the ruthlessness and strength of the attacker, I believe the number has surpassed our initial estimate at this moment.”

Ciel had a bad feeling.

“What?” Hikari’s cool facade broke into utter confusion. “Who is the attacker? How many are we dealing with?”

“Three,” the agent squeaked. “But from their battle-power, they should be treated as three thousands. Our agent is engaging them at the moment, but we need your help to survive.”

…

The agent was right. The Golden Hand had no chance of stopping the attack, even if Hikari came as reinforcement. They only hoped to negotiate for survival by this point.

Piles of mercenaries laid amid flaming materials, smokes, and broken cages. Everything was torn apart in the violence of fires and smokes. This wreck resulted from the one-sided war between the outrage and the opportunistic, which boiled down into an exchange of ultraviolence.

Sadly for the opportunistic, it wasn’t a battle they were going to win. 

A buff mercenary ate an Aura-clad punch that sent him flying through the roof of a flaming warehouse. His comrade attempted to sneak-attack the puncher, but two twin blasts of Red Magic penetrated his knee. The injured mercenary fell to the ground, clutching his bloody legs in pain.

In the middle of this fiery combat, a lone attacker stood in her chain-mail and crimson hair. She was the image of majesty and rampaging violence—the apex of Red Mana. She was the Red Archangel of Montgomery — Dios Apolline Sfolgorante.

The slavers cowering by the corner knew they fuck up. They believed grabbing several girls from the slum would end with no hassle. They even had a carriage for a quick getaway. However, the girl’s tears were heard by an angel. What followed next was an insane chase across Eleanor’s road. The freak of nature called Apolline, powered by righteous anger and over nine-thousand-percent motivation, chased the carriage down several blocks on foot and kicked the vehicle off the road.

But the Archangel wasn’t satisfied with only that bit of blood. After freeing all the captured people, she dragged the two criminals into questioning, and extracted the list of places she needed to burn in an inquisition.

That was when the two guests she was talking to arrived. The three women, bored to death from politicking, decided to vent their irritation in act of righteous hyper violence.

Apolline and her impromptu strike-squad then dragged their prisoners for a tour. Mercenaries came to greet them with gusto and ran away twice as fast. Warehouses, markets, hideouts, and hidden slave-pens caught on fire as the three liberators began dispensing justice.

Then the Golden Hand arrived.

Upon seeing the shadow enforcer of Eleanor coming to their aid, the panicking slavers dared to hope those beasts in the shape of beautiful women could be repelled.

No such luck.

Clang!

A brilliant sword-play disarmed a Golden Hand agent, and a kick punted him into the wall.

“They are good,” Xiahana La Louve said, while a groaning man with a golden mask shuddered underneath her boot. “Are you doing okay, sis!?”

“No!” Elizabeth La Louve said as she ferried a group of recently freed slaves out of the burning hazard. The enemies attacking her — both mercenaries and assassins — sprawled on the group after a quick abuse from rapid casting of Black Magic. “Why did you two drag me into this?”

Truth was the day started with Xia’s first meeting with Apolline. Both women greeted each other like a girl from middle-school in the resonance of childish personality. After a brief chat, they began trading barbed compliments back and forth like two rival cheerleaders gunning after the same football star. The passive aggressive atmosphere was thick to the point even Betty wanted to flee into the toilet. 

To be fair on Betty, she hadn’t been the same since the trashing she got from Etaceh. The current Betty lost most of her confidence, drifting in the limbo of doubt. Her current solutions to problems were shutting up, and praying others could step to the occasion.

The meeting was conclusively frosty. Xia had her priorities, and Apolline had her appeal. The General Manager was solely focused on playing on Ciel’s wait-and-see strategy contrary to Apolline's stance on the hill of action. Meanwhile, Betty oversaw their talk as the powerless referee, regretting the massive roadblock of tension she had contributed.

Then a sound of crying from the street raised them to action. Some people reacted to the noise. Apolline didn’t react, she exploded.

Skip a chase, beatings, liberating captured slaves, and here they were — three arsonists burning warehouses.

Betty cast a Lethargy on the attacking Golden Hand agent and used Drain to drop him into the ground. Burdened by her delicate political situation, Betty tried to use the non-lethal means to incapacitate her attackers. Hence, she employed the sweet selections of her Black Magic, which heavily center on weakening or restraining enemies over turning them into mince-meat.

However, the same couldn’t be said for Apolline. She opened the battle with a Flare, then a storm of Bolts. The Archangel was taking no prisoners.

As for Xia, she was angling on the knife-edge balance between maiming and non-lethal take down.

One of the Golden Hand agent dropped from the burning roof, aiming to land a jump on Xia. Xia, and her [Strategist], already knew the attack was coming and responded accordingly.

White Magic Rank 3: Bind

Spears of light impaled the attacker in the torso before Xia’s fist punched his teeth out. Then a burning beam of wood crashed beside Xia and told her that the entire building was coming down. It appeared the time had come for them to move on.

“Everyone moves!” Xia ordered everyone who listened. “I’m going to bring this building down.” Xia stabbed her rapier — [Deific Wing] — into the ground and unleashed the earthquake.

The earth quaked. The building shook. Beams splintered and fractured from the localized tectonic force on the colossal concord. The orchestra of collapse was thunderous as dust and ash kicked to the sky as the warehouse which used to house the slaves crumbled down.

…

Few minutes later…

Hikari and Ciel looked at the pile of burning logs and molten steel beams that were annihilated by Xia’s [Deific Wing]. Hikari smiled, stumbled a few steps, and fell on her back from the sudden spike in her stress-level. The bedlam on top of all the garbage she had to deal with was too much for the Gold Leader.

Ciel dove, reacting the second he realized Hikari was about to faint. He caught her in a princess carry before her head hit the ground.

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“Am I dead?” Hikari said, drowsily. “Is this somewhere in hell?”

“Not by a long-shot,” Ciel slapped the girl in the cheek to rouse her. “We need to search for a survivor.” He took out a map and tried to do an intervention. “Hikari, where are the rest of these warehouses?”

“I need a recharge,” said the stoic girl who couldn’t take it anymore. “I need a paid holiday.”

Hikari would have recovered in time, but the merciless attack by Murphy was only accelerating.

“Hikari-chaaaan!” the voice of Nuan Yulong flew from behind. “I’m here to help. Just count on me!”

“This must be a nightmare,” Hikari wanted to sleep and forget the debacle happening around her at the moment.

…

The financier — Frederic, or Freddy — never expected his career would meet its demise in such a manner.

Freddy was a true Eleanorian born and bred. Trade and exploitation was the currency his family dealt in. His forefathers came from the Western Continent, a refugee running after the colonization effort was crushed by the elves. Freddy cared little about his family history. The part about them getting repelled by a goddess always struck him as weird. Freddy always thought it was a cheap excuse grandpa made to cope with the Elves outsmarting them.

After running from the west, his forefathers rescued the pieces of their ego and restarted their legacy. They migrated to the much safer shore of Eleanor and started a business. Would it surprise anyone that getting their ass booted did nothing for their ethics? Well, it didn’t. The family spent generations building a criminal empire on the back of Elven slavers, frauds, debt-trappings, smuggling, and counterfeiting artworks. They spent generations building wealth and networks worthy of a major crime family. At long last, Freddy had achieved the untouchable position, becoming a major financier of Eleanor.

But nothing in the world is truly untouchable

Today, those histories came crumbling down.

Justice was merciless. It was beautiful. It was led by a fiery red-head, waving a spear. The army of three surged like tidal waves toward the illustrious manor packed to the brim with warriors, mages,  and mercenaries. Freddy peaked behind the barricaded door to see how his destiny would play out.

It played as a tarot card for death.

Apolline surged forward. Her Red Mana gathered in a chorus.

Red Magic Rank 1: Haste

Red Magic Rank 5: Mana Burst

The Archangel disappeared in flashes of Red, plowing through columns of men and sending them flying like a bowling pin. Over thirty sang the chorus of pain. Oppositions floated like confetti in the face of the one-woman-dynamite. Apolline was fast. Her body is reinforced by White’s art of Strengthen. Not finishing with her rampart-breaking charge, she flexed her Mana to cast a spell backed by the full might of her Mana Burst. The fist grasping the ball of fire raised high.

Red Magic Rank 3: Flare

She punched the fireball into the ground, unleashing the sphere of roaring flames, with herself as an epicenter.

The mercenary was roasted by the Flare before they hit the ground. The surviving warriors tried to regroup, but a certain sorceress from the opposing team had another idea.

Blue Magic Rank 1: Lethargy.

Black Magic Rank 3: Mental Pollution.

Betty quickly launched a dual Magic Combo. The first spell, Lethargy, slowed the dropping mercenary, causing them to float in the air like insects inside a syrup. Meanwhile, the second spell, Mental Pollution, was a Black-base mass subjugation spell, which created the misty smogs clouding and impairing the mind. Betty only used it against a superior number of low quality enemies. Because of its relatively low power, it was mostly useless against her recent obstacles like Etaceh. But against a half-dead mercenary already blown sky-high by Apolline? They won’t be much of a challenge.

Freddy watched the annihilation before his eyes, biting his nails to reduce his nervous energy and fright. He still had a card left to play. The squadron of mages would be enough to…

A light shone from the sky as Xia cast her signature spell.

White Magic Rank 6: Sanction

Nope, never mind, Xia just landed a debuff on the entire battlefield. Their magic activation was retarded under the suppression of White Mana. Then the sky cracked open as Xia finished the battle with a follow-up.

White Magic Rank 5: Wrath of Sol

Comets of light bombarded the area, including the manor. Freddy squeaked as the entire structure collapsed on him as the sky disemboweled itself atop the mercenaries of mages and warriors alike. Wood was thunderously overturned. Stones sizzled. Glass shattered like a cracker in a gas furnace. Foundation toppled as dust and splinters haunted the field.

…

Ciel, Hikari, and the tag-a-long Nuan arrived late to the party being held atop a pile of smoking wood that used to be a manor.

“Dearest,” Xia opened the wine she liberated from Freddy’s underground dungeon. “This is some good stuff. Wanted a sip?”

Meanwhile, Betty was enjoying the praises of the recently liberated.

“You are so cool, Miss!” said a starry-eyed kid.

“Thank for rescuing us!” said a woman

“Thank you,” said another beautiful woman, hugging Betty for dear life. “You save us all.”

“I am just doing the right thing,” Betty said, consumed by the praises. “No need to thank me.”

As for Apolline, she was beating the pulverized Freddy for a kick.

“Tell me who is in with this?” Apolline knocked another tooth out of Freddy’s mouth. “Detail, names, addresses. I want your associate. NOW!”

Freddy couldn’t reply. Apolline had already knocked him unconscious after the fifth punch.

Seeing all of this, Hikari stumbled forward, breathed deeply, and lost her cool.

“We need to talk!” she yelled. “NOW!”

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